


Riders on the Storm

by Arejare



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Pillow & Blanket Forts, Pillow Fights, SO MUCH FLUFF, Sans frees himself a bit, a storm is comming, stormy night
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-06
Updated: 2017-08-06
Packaged: 2018-12-11 16:54:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11718552
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arejare/pseuds/Arejare
Summary: Sans and Papyrus live finally on the surface and experience their first storm rather different. While Sans finds a bit freedom Papyrus can't handle those forces of nature. But it's always good to have a punny brother to help.





	Riders on the Storm

**Author's Note:**

> This little story got his inspiration by this old The Doors song. Feel free to listen to it while reading:  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Y6ruIXYmXY
> 
> The second song plays at the end and always reminds me of how Sans might see Papyrus:  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqik0YECdsg

Sans was sleeping, dreaming. From time to time one of his phalanges twitched. Unintelligible mumbles of halfspoken dreams faded into nothingness, together with the far away soft tunes of an old song from a radio, somewhere in the house:  
  
“…There's a killer on the road, his brain is squirmin' like a toad…”  
  
Sans twitched, sighed deep and turned around, wrapped himself a bit more into his blankets. Pillows lay tossed around. Slowly the early summer air had become sticky and stifled. A low grumble sounded in the distance or was it from the radio? Darkness had crept in the almost empty room and was curled in every corner. There was not much inside. Even less then in his old room. They don’t live for long in this house.  
  
Only a few weeks were passed since the day monsterkind was set free by the human named Frisk. There were still a lot of problems. Enough for even the long lifetime of a monster like king Asgore could barely cope. But in the end humankind and monsterkind had made a truce and Frisk, as ambassador of monsterkind, and with help of Asgore, Toriel and some other monsters, which they had befriended while their journey through the Underground, was working hard to transform it into a peace agreement. But that was only the top of the iceberg. Politics are complicated.  
  
Meanwhile a lot of the monsters were back down under Mount Ebott. They weren’t banned. It was simply easier to live somewhere where one already knows what to expect. Also the Underground finally had become his own kind of home for them.  
  
Not so Sans and Papyrus. They have found a little house in the shadowy forest at the foot of Mount Ebott, not far away from the city with the same name. It was in a pitiful state but Papyrus saw a lot of potential in it and as long as Papyrus was happy, Sans was. Their days were filled with work on the house. The wooden ground of the hallway of the first floor had to be replaced almost completely and there were still holes in the roof, like the big one in Sans room. Actually he liked the hole and wasn’t too enthusiastic to repair it. It was his ohh! so precious second window, because from here he could see the stars every night. Not like the poor imitation of the shiny stones in Waterfall. The real deal. Every night. Well, almost. There were clouds too. Papyrus loved them. He could see a lot of things like fluffy bunnies in them, when they sat on top of the roof and watched the puffy stuff idly drift away. However, Sans loved to lay on his bed stargazing – yes, Papyrus had insisted to buy a real bed for him, but it had to be a futon. So he could easily roll off and sleep on the floor, when his dreams became vicious enough to let him struggle, until he hit the floor and woke up. Exhausted and haunted. The dreams were still there. They were somehow different now… like a permanent feeling of déjà-vu in the back of his mind. An odd feeling that he witnessed something, which he already knew. Something, what had happened before.  
  
“…Like a dog without a bone, an actor out on loan… Riders on the…”  
  
Thunder, so loud it felt like it jolted right through one into an earthquake, had sent the little skeleton on the floor accompanied by a ferocious scream.  
  
Startled, and still the echo of the thunderbolt in his nonexistent ears, Sans sat up and tried to locate the enemy… or everything else that might explain what had woke him up. Nothing. No foe, not even another being. But it was rather dark. He narrowed his brow bones in confusion. Was it one of his nightmares?  
  
A drop splashed right on his forehead.  
  
What the…?  
As Sans looked up another drop felt down. Into his eye socket.  
Fu…?!  
  
Furious he shook his head, blinked and made an annoyed little noise. With a low grumble he rub his eye socket.  
Rain? RAIN? Here?!  
Another low rumble came like a rolling wave and suddenly another thunderbolt jolted down; loud and powerful. And Sans hissed.  
Stars and bones, could it be…?  
  
He struggled to get free of the blankets, took the ladder out of its corner – Papyrus was still looking for it since a week. Welp, he will think of taking it next time he leaves his room – if he won’t forget it again.  
With a soft _klonk_ the ladder landed at the edge of the hole. He looked up. In the few seconds he had snatched the ladder and calibrated it, the rain had become heavier. Drops pattered down more and more. The sky was heavy of a dark greyish mass of clouds, like polished steel. They hung so deep Sans got the impression he could maybe touch them, if he would climb mount Ebott. Again a grumbling thunder rolled through the air.  
He braced himself and started to climb the ladder. On top Sans looked around. The shingles were wet and slippy. Holes here and there, which still had to be patched but they haven't managed in time.

What Papyru...

The next thunder joined by a blinding flash let him struggle and Sans almost fell back into the hole. Instead it sent him on his bottom.

Stars and bones!

Big, heavy raindrops soaked his clothes immediately. Wind blew around him, pushed him, dazzled him and snatched his breath from his non-lips. Suddenly he felt a giggle rise up inside of himself. THIS... this weather, no, force of nature...!

Another thunder and another flash shook him.

Now he chuckled and went back on his feet. Something was building up in himself. He felt free...? And... there were more than the raindrops running down his cheeks, weren't there?

Stars...!

He looked up into the madness of nature. Confused but still a bit giggly Sans brushed the wetness away. Not that it was helping. He was **wet to the bone**! Once more the laugh bubbled up, somewhat stronger than before. And he let it out. Laughed into the storm as loud as he could.

And cried.

And screamed...

 

Sans fell on his knees, shudders of laugher and tears, of fear and relive rattled through his boney body. The rain had finally seeped through his clothes and even if he couldn't feel cold or heat, it was sticky and damp and awkward how the fabric stuck to him.

Again he brushed over his skull, phalanges as wet as everything else on him. He sniffed. That was... something else...  
Another soft giggle, a harmless, normal one, drifted through him. With a sigh he looked around. The world was still grey. Silvery stripes of rain jolted to the ground and grumbles of thunder rolled like waves. Everything felt clear; each pain, each dark though was washed away.  
Yeah, he really loves the rain. And maybe storms a bit more, now.  
Welp… Those lightening storms can be very striking! Sans grinned at his pun but then it hit him:

How long had he been here? Papyrus!  
  
In a rush he climbed down the ladder and went out of his door.

"Papyrus? bro, where are you?"

A muffled “Nyeh” indicated that Papyrus was in fact at home. But the sound of his voice, nothing cheerful or confident but quiet and somehow lost, alarmed Sans more than complete silent could have.  
With his next step the scene had changed and he stood right in front of a huge pile of pillows, blankets, towels – heck, was that his futon?! – and all clothes from the laundry line from outside and many more where their couch normally was. It looked like Papyrus had collected every bit of fabric in the entire house! But where was he?  
  
“Pap?” asked Sans, his voice hollow of concern.  
“Here…” muffled the pillow mountain.  
“by Asgores beard, Paps! are you alright? what happened?”  
His last words were accompanied by another flash and thunder – followed by a squeaking noise out of the mountain. It sounded almost cute and tugged at Sans’ mouth corner, even though he felt bad for his baby brother. Papyrus hadn’t made this noise since he was barely half as high as Sans was.  
“oh, bro! brooo… it’s alright! it’s just a storm!”  
  
“I KNOW, SANS!” Came an annoyed huff from the deep of the puffy fluffiness.  
Sans chuckled and lifted some pillows to see if he could find his brother somewhere. He dug his way deeper, blankets and pillows falling back at their places, when he passed, leaving his path in comfortable darkness. Finally he reached a stuffy fabric cavern with a lanky skeleton monster in it. His eyes in a faint glowing orange and he was curled up on a stuffed bunny.  
“hey,” Sans simple said, making himself comfortable as he could. He almost ended up on Papyrus’ lap, together with the bunny. “nice, err, nest.”  
“YOU ARE WET.”  
  
Sans frowned and looked down on himself. Yep, he was right. The white tank top and shorts he was wearing clung to him like a second, welp, first skin.  
“i was outside.”  
“I SEE.”  
  
Thunder growled over them, muffled by layers of soft stuffed fabric. Papyrus flinched but said nothing, a grumpy stoutness on his features.  
Sans faltered. Papyrus’ reaction to the storm was pretty adorable but the same time he wondered how he could help his poor little babybro to overcome it. It was simply not right to see him act like this. Maybe he needn’t freak out like himself but at least he could be a bit more relaxed. It was just a storm, stars! A big one, okay, and their first. A whole new experience for both. Nevertheless, no need to be afraid of it. And Papyrus was afraid.  
  
He reflected another moment about the whole mess, looking thoughtful at the other monster’s grim and somehow exhausted features. Welp, best if he gained some more information.  
  
“why all the pillows?”  
“BECAUSE” Papyrus pouted in an already annoyed tone “SOMEONE HAD TO PROTECT OUR PROPERTY FROM THE ELEMENTS! IT’S RAINING, SANS. AND WINDY AND BLOWY AND THERE WAS SO MUCH TO COLLECT AND… AND…” he trailed of in a sigh “AND I WASN’T THINKING STRAIGHT. I JUST… WANTED TO PROTECT ALL OUR GREAT NEW PILLOWS AND BLANKETS AND COMFORTABLE MATTRESSES AND SUDDENLY THERE WAS THIS BIG, **BIG** AND NASTY BANG AND EVERYTHING WAS SO BRIGHT…!” He shook his head and sighed again, then looked straight into Sans’ eyes “I WASN’T VERY COOL AT THIS MOMENT.”  
“welp, looks like you had an enlightening moment.”  
“SANS!”  
“it was electrified… you could say you had a real hair-raiser…”  
“DAH, SANS! I DON’T EVEN HAVE HAIR!”  
“true, true…”  
  
Sans scratched the back of his head. He felt itchy in his clothes and a bit too cramped in all the stuff around them. Suddenly a thought popped up in his mind. What if… He looked around, as far as it was possible with the dim light out of Papyrus’ eyes.  
  
“Paps?”  
“MHM?”  
“i have an idea…”  
“Of COURSE YOU HAVE.”  
Sans grin widened a bit more.  
“let’s get outta here.”  
“WHY?” came the wary answer.  
“because i need your help.”  
“WITH WHAT?”  
“with the blankets and stuff.”  
“WHA… WHY? I THINK IT IS RATHER COMFORTABLE HERE, SANS.” Papyrus hugged the little stuffed bunny a bit more and looked away. Time to intervene.  
“oh, i’m not sure if i’m comforter-ble with it.”  
“STOP IT.”  
  
Sans grinned mischievous.  
  
“sorry, i’ll fold up my stuff and be gone.” He started to crawl out.  
“URGH!” But Papyrus followed him.  
  
Come on Paps, just a bit more...  
  
“be careful here or you get smothered!”  
“URGH, YOU ARE THE WORST, THESE PUNS BED-ER STOP!”  
  
Aaaand gottcha!  
  
“oh, sheet, Paps!”  
Now the little skeleton grinned from the figurative ear to ear.  
“YOU ARE IMPASSIBLY! THIS IS A REAL PILL-LOW TALK!”  
“ah shoo, it nothing mattress as long as you help me.” Sans winked at his brother who just climbed out of the pillow pile. The lanky skeleton brushed some invisible particle off and stood there, his bunny pressed to his ribcage in a death grip.  
Sans circuited the mountain and nodded. Then he squashed himself between the wall and the couch and started to push it further into the room.  
  
“SANS, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?”  
“just sofa-r…!” came it squeezed through Sans teeth. Papyrus slapped his hand across his forehead and mumbled something inaudible. Finally Sans had managed to push the piece of furniture almost as far into the room as he was high. He slumped to the ground, grinning, arms folded behind his head.  
“AND NOW?”  
“we build a fort. a pillow fort.”  
“OH…? OHHH! YES! SANS, STOP BEING LAZY AND HELP ME!” Even though Sans couldn’t see the change in Papyrus face he could hear it. Eventually his lil bro was as confident as he used to be. Sans grinned satisfied.  
  
Suddenly a pillow flopped right onto his face.  
What the?!  
He jumped up and looked around. On the other side of the couch Papyrus stood with a pillow in each hand and a big belligerent smile on his face, ready to fight.  
  
“oh, it's on!” Sans grin widened, two blue glowing pillows appeared behind him.  
  
The fight was merciless and terrible – and short. While pillows, socks and a little white dog flew around, Sans had slammed his futon behind the couch to get a better stand. Mattresses and Pillows, glowing in blue and orange lights, were piled up left and right as shield and walls. Blankets were spread over them to get a free field of fire. In a flash the white dog flew right into Papyrus’ direction and Sans screamed “I cover you!” armed with a blanket and flopped on his brother, giggling. Both fell backwards laughing.  
  
“SANS, YOUR PUNS ARE TERRIBLE…”  
“you are hammocking me, they are hilarious!”  
“YOU CAN’T BLANKET YOUR OBSESSION WITH THEM FROM ME.”  
“i never will”, grinned the smaller skeleton with a wink “and hey, we have built our fort as well..”  
“YEAH, YOU ARE RIGHT.” Papyrus lifted himself up and took a look around. Almost the whole living room was now a labyrinth of mattresses- and pillow-corridors covered by blankets and laundry. Because of the last Papyrus frowned a bit. He had to fold them anew, when they are cleaning up. But for now it was just perfect.  
  
“Paps?”  
Papyrus, a flagpole in an ocean of blankets, spun his head to detect his brother, who was standing at the end of the stairs, a book in his hand: Peek-a-Boo with Fluffybunny. The features of the tall skeleton brightened.  
  
“DO WE READ IT RIGHT HERE? IN OUR IMPRESSIVE AND WELL BUILT FORT?”  
“of course. that’s why i got it. go in Paps, i’ll find you.”  
  
Papyrus slipped into the next entrance near to him, which was under a t-shirt with “NASA” print, and found his way into a huge cavern with pillows and blankets and Sans sitting in the middle, a camping light and the book in his hands. He patted a place beside him, pillows and a blanket piled up invitingly.  
Papyrus crawled over there and nestled himself right next to Sans.  
“READY.”  
  
Sans began to read, his voice tailed off into the soft patter of rain outside. Dripping and dabbling noises from pots and bowls mixed into the background noise. A last, far away thunder was heard in the distance. Somewhere a radio played a song:  
  
“You never give up when I'm falling apart, your arms are always open wide and you're quick to forgive, when I make a mistake...”  
  
Slowly night spread out their wings and left the little old house in the warm summery darkness of the forest at the foot of Mount Ebott.


End file.
